Create synonyms using a Thesaurus file in SharePoint Server

This is no secret that Search is very important in SharePoint.
Creating a thesaurus file, and uploading it to SharePoint Server, will provide synonyms results to users when they perform a search.

This is not applicable to SharePoint Online (at the time of writing: Dec. 2017).

Let’s get started!

Minimum requirements:

• Search Service Application created
• Search Service Application Admin permissions

Creating the Thesaurus file

A thesaurus file has a very specific format. It contains (in that order) a key, a synonym, and a language.

• Log into your SharePoint Server
• Open Notepad
• Insert the synonyms

Thesaurus example

Save the thesaurus in your file share as a .csv file and encoding UTF-8 (saved mine on my server called “DCSQL1”)

Save thesaurus file as .csv

IMPORTANT:
Save a copy of the thesaurus file also to another location, as there’s no way to export or even retrieve it if it’s lost.

Import the Thesaurus file with PowerShell

• Open SharePoint Management Shell (or PowerShell ISE + add the snappin)

$searchSA = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication
Import-SPEnterpriseSearchThesaurus -SearchApplication $searchSA -FileName <UNC path>

Thesaurus imported successfully

NOTE:
Each time a Thesaurus is uploaded, it will overwrite the current one.

Test the synonyms

Now that everything went well, let’s give it a try.

• Logging into a client machine
• Searching “cbr” should return a document called “Client Budget Report“

Client Budget Report returned with “cbr”

• Searching “cso” should return a document called “Client Solution Overview“

Client Solution Overview returned with “cso”

If you need more information, please refer to the official documentation.